This work deals with the empirical and legal -dogmatic principles of the bribery of foreign official by employees of German corporations. On the basis of a federal-wide file analysis as well as expert interviews conducted both nationally and internationally, the author analyses the manifestations of transnational corruption and its criminal prosecution in practice. Her findings about the phenomenon of foreign bribery (procedure, motivations and participants) are supplemented by a detailed examination of the normative preconditions of criminal liability. In the light of the guidelines of international conventions, this study discusses understanding legally protected goods and the elements of the new regulation in § 335a of the StGB (the German penal code) as well as the personal and criminal jurisdictional scope of its application. § 335a of the StGB proves to be indicative of the current developments in German criminal law: an increase especially in the area of white-collar crime, its use as an instrument of behaviour control, the heteronomy of German criminal law through international conventions as well as the design of new and more abstract legally protected goods. On the basis of the legal and empirical findings, the author develops proposals for improvement on a normative, procedural and institutional Level.